Monday, October 11, 2010

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, October 12, 2010

No, it's a B-flat. It looks wrong andit sounds wrong, but it's right.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Englishcomposer; he was born on thisdate, 1872.

Have you heard “The Lark Ascending”?? In my opinion, it ranks among the great compositions of the 20th Century. It is a metaphor: the human spirit can be beaten down – but it has the capacity to heal and be restored ….. and to soar.

Most human beings are wary of the metaphorical “B-flats” in their cultural, theological, philosophical, emotional context. And we are aware of those B-flats when the break into our lives. They feel discordant. They challenge us. They make us feel uneasy. You can think of what those B-flats are, right? They de-stable us. They invade our comfort zones. They challenge our set ways and our convictions. They insinuate that we may have been following an unproductive path, a self-destructive path, and that we might have to change.

Often – most often – they “look wrong” and “sound wrong”. They disorient us. They make us wonder if we are on solid ground. All of the parables of Jesus are B-flats; if we “hear” them, they jolt us out of a deadening complacency and call us to a “new life”.

I’ve learned, over the decades: if it “looks wrong and it sounds wrong”, pay attention.